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Cowboys’ Ware Disrupts on Defense

IRVING, Tex. (AP) — DeMarcus Ware surely expected a running play on third-and-short. Frank Gore instead burst out of the backfield into a deep pass pattern.

Ware, a Cowboys linebacker better known for sacking quarterbacks, stuck with Gore, San Francisco’s dual-threat running back, step for step and broke up the pass more than 20 yards downfield.

Ware is the N.F.L. sacks leader, but he has an unusual blend of strength, agility and quickness that allows him to be a dominating force all over the field.

“He’s dismantling people,” the Cowboys’ Marcus Spears said. “D-Ware plays the run like a down lineman, he also can get to the quarterback with a power rush or can run past them. So those facets of his game are what makes him exceptional.”

Ware had three sacks on Thanksgiving Day, pushing his season total to 15. They came in less than three quarters because Ware left the game after sustaining a hyperextended knee when his left leg twisted awkwardly while rushing Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

An uneasy feeling settled over Texas Stadium when it became apparent Ware was hurt. The Cowboys (8-4), a preseason Super Bowl favorite that is now fighting to earn a wild-card spot, had struggled through three games without the injured quarterback Tony Romo. His return fueled a three-game winning streak, but it now appeared that the team’s defensive leader was down.

Ware got up after a few minutes and walked to the locker room without any assistance. He returned to the field for the postgame celebration.

“Guys might try to go at it or cut me,” Ware said. “That’s part of the game.”

The injury kept him out some practices last week, but Ware is expected to play Sunday at Pittsburgh wearing a protective brace on his knee.

Defenses have had little success stopping Ware, no matter what they do.

“Our guys are short, squatty try-hard guys,” Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin said last week when asked to compare his standout linebacker James Harrison to Ware. “DeMarcus is a freak of nature.”

Spears said: “Having him out there, offenses have to account and change things up. He affects the game before it starts.”

“He’s an instinctive player and he’s a smart player,” said Zach Thomas, a seven-time Pro Bowl linebacker who joined the Cowboys this season. “He’s so talented. He really has impressed me with his consistency. You really don’t see him have an off game.”

In the only game this season in which Ware did not have a sack, ending his league record-matching streak of 10 consecutive games with one, he was in the face of Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia to force an incompletion on fourth down from the Cowboys’ 18 with 13 seconds left.

Ware has since had at least one sack in four straight games, and the single-season record of 22 ½ sacks set by Michael Strahan in 2001 is not out of reach.

“You’ve got to keep it out of your mind,” Ware said. “It’s all really just being consistent. That’s what I told myself at the beginning of the season. I’ve been doing really well with that philosophy, so just going to keep on rolling.”

Ware’s 10-game sacks streak, which was the longest in the league in 15 years is not recognized as a Cowboys record. Harvey Martin had sacks in 11 consecutive games from 1976 to 1977 before the league recognized sacks as an official statistic in 1982. Martin has the single-season team record with 23 in 1977.

The last Cowboys player to have more sacks in a season than Ware was the Hall of Fame defensive tackle Randy White, who had 16 in 1978.

In his fourth season, Ware already has four of the top six single-season totals for linebackers in team history, and is only the fourth Cowboys player with three consecutive 10-sack seasons.

Teammates insist, however, that Ware is even better against the run than he is rushing quarterbacks and creating havoc in the passing game.

“That’s telling you something,” Thomas said.

“I love when guys try to run,” Ware said. “I can really show my aggression toward them when they try to crack-block down on me.

“You really can just overpower guys.”

Ware had not yet played a game for the Cowboys as a rookie in 2005 when the former coach Bill Parcells was comparing him to another player he coached, the Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.

Parcells drafted Ware 11th over all, passing on Shawne Merriman, who was selected by San Diego with the next pick.

Ware has spent time learning the nuances of the 3-4 defense. He has had to adapt to a hybrid position that is part defensive end and part linebacker.

“It’s all about wanting to do it and just working hard,” Ware said. “That’s what I do at the end of the day.

“I knew I was going to be able to convert over to linebacker, but how successful can you be? It goes as sort of a goal or a steppingstone that I had to overcome. Now I’m very comfortable with what I do.”

And eventually, Parcells may be comparing players to Ware instead of Taylor.